Lower secondary students’ views about mathematicians depicted as mathematics teachers

Abstract

The present study examined lower secondary students’ images of mathematics, comprised of stated attitudes to and perceived needs for mathematics, and views about mathematicians and their work. A group of 1284 lower secondary students drew a picture of mathematician at work and described their drawings. The students’ drawings fell into two distinct groups: drawings that depicted their view of what a mathematician at work would look like, and drawings that depicted a mathematician who was clearly a mathematics teacher. This article presents the data regarding the latter group. Trends that emerged from the drawings in this sample included that mathematics teachers were: predominantly female; had a positive image; incorporated lectures, explanations, and demonstrations; and used whiteboards and books as tools of the profession. The article concludes with possible implications for practice and research.

Exploring Evidence of Mathematical Tasks and Representations in the Drawings of Middle School Students

“…Even the latest changes in the regulations relating to clothing and appearance of school employees (in this case teachers) in Turkey, could be observed in student drawings. That is, until relatively recently, female teachers were not allowed to wear headscarves in class and in my previous drawing research (e.g., Hatisaru, 2019a), no students drew their female teachers with scarves. In this study, which was implemented after the regulations changed, several students depicted female teachers wearing headscarves.…”

“…Being confronted with mainly procedural tasks is also boring and restrictive for students (Sullivan, 2011). In time, students can come to see mathematics as mostly numbers or formulae (Boaler, 2015), as was evident in the students views in the research by Hatisaru (2019a) and Ucar et al (2010), which contributes to their disengagement with mathematics (Goldin, 2018).…”

“…The research reported here and elsewhere (e.g., Hatisaru, 2019a) used data derived from students' drawings about their image of mathematics. The scientific interest in children's drawings arose in the 1900s, and drawings have been used for psychology, anthropology and ethnology (e.g., Goodenough, 1926) as well as for education (Chambers, 1983).…”

“…For decades now, drawings have been widely used to elicit data from students relating to their views about mathematics (Rock & Show, 2000;Ucar, Piskin, Akkas, & Tasci, 2010), mathematicians (Aguilar et al, 2016;Hatisaru, 2019a;Picker & Berry, 2001), mathematics teaching (Author, 2019b), and mathematics education with a focus on motivation (Johansson & Sumpter, 2010). Drawings have also been used for exploring students' perceptions of assessment practices in mathematics classrooms (Remesal, 2009), the kind of emotional atmosphere (Laine, Näveri, Ahtee, Hannula, & Pehkonen, 2013) and types of work experienced in mathematics lessons (Pehkonen, Ahtee, & Laine, 2016), and the teacher actions factor on the emotional atmosphere of mathematics classrooms (Laine et al, 2020).…”

The knowledge produced through student drawings

“…The findings include that, according to the students, the chief discipline-related activities of mathematicians were studying or creating mathematics, and the chief activities of mathematics teachers were teaching, explaining, or demonstrating. The primary tools used by mathematicians and mathematics teachers included a whiteboard and books, and in a few cases concrete materials and technological tools (Hatisaru, 2019a(Hatisaru, , 2020c.…”